In a unanimous vote in late February, the Senate approved changes
to the electoral code (Codigo Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos
Electorales, COFIPE), eliminating a federal prohibition on alcohol sales
on the federal election day. The changes to the dry law, in effect for
almost a century, will be applicable to the presidential and
congressional elections on July 2, 2006.

Under the reform to article 239 of the COFIPE, restaurants and
other establishments will no longer be subject to federal restrictions
on the sale of alcoholic products on election day and the day prior to
the election.

The Senate measure, similar to one the Chamber of Deputies approved
in May, 2005, was promoted by the Camara Nacional de la Industria de
Restaurantes y Alimentos Condimentados (CANIRAC) and the Asociacion
Mexicana de Hoteles y Moteles (AMHM).

"The discontent with the dry law has been growing during the
past few years, especially in regions of the country where the principal
activity is foreign tourism," said the text of the Senate
legislation. "Merchants in these areas were incurring heavy
economic losses."

In recent years, many critics called for repeal of the law, which
they called outdated because many of the election safeguards that were
put in place in 1915 no longer apply to modern society.

The dry law was first imposed by Sonora Gov. Plutarco Elias Calles
in 1915 to discourage violence and abstentionism on election day. Elias
Calles later served as Mexican president from 1924 to 1928.

"This law guarantees that citizens will show up at the
polls...and will exercise their right to vote in a responsible
manner," said the text of the law, which was eventually extended to
the rest of the country.

The COFIPE reform retained a clause that allows state and local
authorities to decide whether to keep the prohibition in place locally.

CANIRAC and AMHM representatives said this could present a problem,
as states like Chiapas and Yucatan have traditionally supplemented their
state coffers by selling special permits to merchants that would allow
them to sell alcoholic beverages on election day. "These are
earnings that they may not want to surrender so easily," CANIRAC
president Sergio Larraguivel said last year after the measure in the
lower house was approved.

There were also some opponents of the measure who raised concerns
about eliminating the alcohol restrictions on election day. "From
our point of view, alcoholism is the number-one problem in our country,
and the presence of alcohol could harm the electoral process by
promoting abstentionism or encouraging conflicts," said Lupita
Rodriguez Martinez, a columnist for the Monterrey daily newspaper El
Porvenir.

Electoral authorities, however, said the end of the dry law does
not mean a complete relaxation of guidelines on election day. "Any
citizen who shows up at the polls inebriated will not be allowed to
exercise his or her right to vote," said Arturo Sanchez Gutierrez,
a councilor for the Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE). (Sources: El
Economista, 05/05/05, 05/23/05, 02/22/06; La Cronica de Hoy, El Diario de Mexico, Reforma, La Crisis, El Universal, 02/22/06; Frontenet-Juarez,
02/24/06; El Porvenir, 02/28/06; Notimex, 02/21/06, 03/01/06)

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